The Power BI finance dashboard is a must-have weapon in the arsenal of the tech-enabled CFO or FD. This business intelligence platform provides CFOs and FDs with a modern analytics tool that can revolutionise how they consume, combine and present complex financial and other business data.
Finance departments ought to be the source of all business reporting but until now have lacked the tools, know-how, and access to business data to produce anything apart from monthly financial reports.
Historically, IT departments have filled the void with access to business data, from systems they own, the budget, and the expertise to develop a reporting application. However, in many companies, we see a lack of cooperation between the two departments whereby IT don’t get finance to reconcile the numbers reported before they are made available to the business. Consequently, the numbers produced by such systems rarely agree with the financial reports. This has the impact of undermining confidence in both data sets.
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What is the Power BI finance dashboard?
Power BI offers a solution: it puts a powerful yet easy to use analytical reporting system capable of connecting to finance and operational systems and databases within the reach of tech-savvy CFOs. With reporting consolidated under one roof, there is a much higher chance management reporting systems will agree to the financial results. If there’s one thing accountants tend to be good at, it is reconciliations.
A Power BI-enabled CFO then has what many have long sought: management reports that agree to the profit and loss account.
What is Power BI?
Power BI is a kit-bag of apps and services by Microsoft that helps businesses collate, manage, and analyse data from various sources through a user-friendly interface. In a nutshell, it enables users to create reports and dashboards easily.
For example, early-stage and growing businesses may use Power BI to gain greater insights into resourcing, operational efficiency, sales and marketing, and profitability. These insights can then provide the CEO with the information they need to make more informed decisions.
However, just because the barriers to entry to the use of Power BI are low (anyone can download and start using the desktop version for free) doesn’t mean it lacks power for more rigorous applications: over 80,000 businesses of all sizes worldwide are using the platform.
Along with the rest of the Microsoft Power Platform, Power BI is part of Microsoft’s drive to empower ‘citizen developers’ to build tomorrow’s business applications with a low code/no-code approach.
Related article | Why choose Power BI as your business intelligence platform
Why should the finance department be custodians of business data?
Tech-savvy accountants, with their advanced excel skills, are supremely well placed to join the ranks of these citizen developers. The jump from Excel to Power BI won’t be a huge leap for many, especially if they already use Excel’s Power Query data manipulation features.
With their advanced excel skills, tech-savvy accountants are supremely well placed to join the ranks of proficient citizen developers. The jump from Excel to Power BI won’t be a huge leap for many, especially if they already use Excel’s Power Query data manipulation features.
But it’s their technical skills as accountants that also make finance staff perfect candidates for the Power BI finance dashboard to develop business reporting systems. Accountants are used to paying attention to detail, ensuring that accounts reconcile and variances between different sets of data are explained.
In their role as business partners, many accountants also have sharp commercial acumen and understand the business drivers that contribute to revenues and costs. Combined with their tech know-how, the finance department is well-placed to be the custodian of business data.
What about the things IT need to worry about: security and maintenance?
While IT departments may welcome handing over the responsibility of developing and maintaining a reporting system, they will inevitably have concerns about the areas they need to have control over – data security, access control and application maintenance.
IT must be involved in the planning process of any reporting project so that these aspects can be talked through and planned right from the outset. The good news is that the Power BI finance dashboard incorporates a wide range of security features.
While the temptation is always to dive straight in and start writing reports a little time spent at the outset on governance will help to get IT on board with a project. There are a variety of resources available to help in planning these governance aspects, including an excellent White Paper published by Microsoft.
How can ireport can build your Power BI finance dashboard?
While Power BI puts reporting into the hands of citizen developers and the barriers to entry are undoubtedly very low, it’s likely a finance team will need a helping hand on a project of any size.
While the language for writing formulas, DAX, will look familiar to Excel, there’s a lot to learn. There are hours of video content on YouTube and countless blogs devoted to the subject, highlighting what an in-depth subject it is – the power of Power BI is seemingly endless. For this reason, it will incur a significant amount of an accountant’s time. Whilst it is beneficial to a business’ analysis of performance, it distracts an accountant from what they should be doing (accounts, managing the finance function and providing strategic level support to the CEO) due to the time incurred in getting up to speed with the software.
Similarly, ensuring your security settings are correct and users can only see what you intend them to see requires technical know-how. Despite it being simple to connect to many data sources using out of the box connectors, any non-standard or on-premises systems might require an expert to implement.
That’s when a partner such as ireport can help. As accountants by training who have moved into the business intelligence arena, we have helped many clients build reporting solutions to enhance the technological capabilities of the finance department. By completing this work, we have provided a view into the problem and helped our clients navigate towards a solution with the information we have made accessible.
Have a look at the ireport showcase gallery for examples of how our clients have benefitted from Power BI for CFOs.